Federal judge dismisses lawsuit over state trooper’s shooting of Ricky Cobb – Twin Cities

A federal judge has dismissed a civil lawsuit against a Minnesota police officer over the fatal shooting of a man during an attempted traffic stop along a Twin Cities freeway last year.

Judge Nancy Brasel granted Trooper Ryan Londregan’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the family of Ricky Cobb II.

Cobb, 33, was pulled over on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis around 2 a.m. on July 31, 2023, after troopers said they couldn’t see the lights on his car. When troopers arrived in the vehicle to attempt to arrest Cobb for allegedly violating a Ramsey County protective order, Cobb began to drive away. Londregan fired several shots into the vehicle, fatally wounding Cobb.

The lawsuit, filed last April, alleged that Londregan and a second trooper at the scene, Brett Seide, used excessive force and violated Cobb’s civil rights. Londregan filed a motion to dismiss in May and a hearing on that motion was held in late July.

In an order filed Wednesday, Brasel wrote that the court “cannot conclude that Londregan violated a clearly established right when he made the decision to shoot Cobb.”

Brasel wrote that Londregan is entitled to qualified immunity — a legal doctrine that protects police and other officials from civil suits unless they knowingly violate a clearly established constitutional right.

Brasel also wrote that the evidence at the scene contradicted claims made in the trial, and she wrote that “it was objectively reasonable for an officer to use deadly force to neutralize what he reasonably believed to be a risk of serious physical harm to others, including a man. officer.”

Londregan had also faced criminal charges in connection with Cobb’s death. Those charges were dropped in June, with Hennepin County District Attorney Mary Moriarty saying it was impossible to prove unauthorized use of force.

Seide, the second trooper named in the Cobb family’s civil suit, also filed to dismiss the case. A hearing on this motion was held on October 9; a decision is pending.